The Climate Crisis Under the Microscope Part Four: A History of Climate and Environmental Activism
Opinion Analysis by Roa Daher, Featured Writer
24th of May, 2021
Before climate activism became centered around the climate crisis, it was centered solely around the pollution of the Earth. And even before mainstream environmental activism, there was an age-old sea of environmental awareness and a spiritual connection to the Earth and its land. In fact, evidence of the first inklings of ecological awareness appeared close to 5,000 years ago with the philosophy of Taoism that preached how human life should reflect the patterns of nature while Buddhists reflected on Buddha’s all-encompassing compassion. The respect and care held for the environment of which we are a part of has always been a spiritual and, at times, religious affair, and indigenous populations can be the first to testify to that. Even though that care is not included in the popular definition of environmental activism, which has changed greatly over the past 50 years, it is in fact the essence and root of modern climate activism as it is not unique to the Global North. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, which prompted a huge wave of international awareness about the effects of pesticides on the environment’s health, the Indus of Mohenjo Daro understoodthe harm pollution caused to health. Research shows that even close to 4,000 years ago, humans were experiencing the impacts of climate change. It is theorized the Harappan people of the Indus Valley deserted their grand cities due to a seasonal shift that made winter monsoons much more commonplace than summer ones.
The first people to practice environmental activism were the Bishnoi Hindus, who practiced environmental stewardship as part of their faith. In 1730, the king of Jodhpur sent soldiers to a forest near the village of Khejarli to collect wood for his new palace. In protest against the soldiers’ destruction of the forest, the villagers began hugging the trees as they were chopped down, causing the decapitation of 363 Bishnoi villagers. When the king heard of this altercation, he apologized to the villagers and gave the Bishnoi state protected area status which is still in effect today.
The modern environmental activism movement was built on thousands of years of environmental awareness by indigenous people, but it was revolutionized in 1962 with the publication of Silent Spring which prompted key pollution legislations like the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act, and eventually the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. On April 22, 1970, which was the very first Earth Day, thousands of Americans took to the streets to protest environmental pollution and destruction, depicting the first wave of environmental awareness. Since then, things have greatly evolved. Most important is the change in the degree of urgency that climate change now carries. While in earlier decades the focus may have been wholly on environmental pollution, the issue of climate change is now front and center. This is not to say that pollution is no longer relevant, but activism centered around pollution and environmental justice is much more localized than the international activism being done in the name of the climate crisis.
Arguably the most notable environmental activist of the past few years has been a Swedish girl named Greta Thunberg, who began a school strike on Fridays for the climate. What started as a solo strike is now a movement involving thousands of students from all over the world organizing protests and strikes to raise awareness about the climate crisis and try to force government action. Unfortunately, despite Greta’s respectable efforts to raise awareness about the urgency of this cause, she was co-opted by the media and international organizations as a symbol for the movement and stripped of any real power to enact material change that would help alleviate the crisis. Other organizations heavily involved in activism, some of which engage in environmental violence, include Greenpeace which has seen steady growth and popularity in recent years.
What is most important to the climate activism movement is to remember its roots and pay tribute to them by amplifying the voices of indigenous people who truly care about the land and the environment. The climate crisis is inextricably linked to other anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements, all of which have wreaked havoc on the Earth. Instead, an intersectional understanding of the climate crisis must be adopted to really avert the crisis and achieve the desired goal of protecting our planet.